House Monstra Hotline by V. T. Hoang

Author:V. T. Hoang [V. T. Hoang]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2025-02-03T00:00:00+00:00

Don't Look

This is the hotline for House Mon— Oh… I’m afraid we’re not taking off-site requests during the blizzard… He’s in your building? I… I mean, I guess that’s fine then. Let me talk to my manager and get back to you.

A blizzard hit. Peyton's apartment complex was across the main bridge into town, effectively barricading him from work. There was a little grocery store around the block that was preventing everyone from panicking just yet, but it’d probably be a week until they could leave this side of the river.

Madame Avramenko had told him to keep warm and not worry about coming in until it was safe. She couldn’t afford to pay him for all the time off when the spa also wasn’t getting many clients right now, but he already had a lot of savings from working for her for half a year now.

He sat in his living room. The walls were a light green that the landlord preferred for all the apartments. Sand-colored carpet covered the floor. It had cushion enough to dull most footsteps, which was a nice investment for a complex as large as this one. Paintings of vibrantly colored flowers and landscapes hung around the room—Beth’s work. Peyton had not gotten whatever eye and fine motor control she had for art.

The kotatsu table rested in front of a black sofa large enough to be a bed. Peyton had his legs under the comforter, letting the heater beneath the table run at full blast to offset the chill in the air. His mother probably would have scolded him for owning something Japanese, but he didn’t care. Kotatsu were cozy.

He stared at the cards on the table. A pair of steaming mugs framed what was becoming an intense game. Beth sat on the other side. She had also inherited their mother’s almond eyes, but the bridge of her nose was just a little more pronounced like their father’s had been. Her black hair was shaved to the scalp on one side, showing tattoos of intertwining snakes. They extended down the side of her neck and disappeared under the collar of her sweater.

She looked down at the cards in her hand and then up at Peyton. “You got a Defender of the Divine?” she asked with narrowed eyes. “Or are you just bluffing?”

Peyton’s lips twitched. “Only one way to find out. You going to play that Consecrated Ground you’ve been holding onto or not?”

“Fuck you.”

“I’m not the one who chose a metallic deck.”

She held his stare for a long moment before slowly taking a card from her hand and setting it on the table. The image on it was an artistic rendition of foothills covered in lush greenery, and writing at the base described the card’s stats.

“I’ll play Consecrated Ground over my fairy,” Beth said stiffly. “That’s fourteen points of damage coming for you.”

Peyton didn’t smile because he wasn’t that much of a dick. He just pulled the Defender of the Divine card from his hand and set it down.

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